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Monthly Archives: June 2016

My biggest struggle by far when it comes to keeping a healthy diet is the fact that I have a major sweet tooth. I’ve had a lot of people recently comment on my “will power” and I just want to point out that I don’t always have will power when it comes to my diet and to be honest lately all I’ve wanted to do is crush Ben & Jerry’s before bed. I get the sense that many people have this same sweet tooth struggle so I thought I’d share a few tips and tricks that have helped me over the years! And to keep this a bit more entertaining I decided to throw some New Girl memes in the mix 🙂

1. Coffee and/or Tea

I instantly want dessert after dinner. It’s clockwork. Something that helps me is making an after dinner coffee or tea. If you own a Keurig, Bed Bath and Beyond actually has a variety of dessert kcup flavors (chocolate doughnut is currently my favorite).

2. Healthy dessert alternatives

There are a lot of ways to make your own delicious desserts without all of the excess carbs/fats. Some of my favorite creations include the protein ice cream (some may call this protein sludge) protein brownies, mug cakes, waffles (my black bean prownie recipe is posted here). There are also a few low calorie ice cream brands that you can find in your local grocery store such as Arctic Zero however, I have found that my own ice cream creations are actually more tasty than Arctic Zero which tastes a little too “icy” for me (just my opinion). However, if you’re a Greek yogurt fan I HIGHLY recommend Yasso frozen treats or Light & Fit Greek yogurts. Every single flavor I have tried has been amazing for both of these brands!

3. Sugar Free Gum

There is pretty much every flavor sugar free gum out there at this point. A recent find that I really like is the Project 7 Birthday Cake gourmet gum. I’ve found this brand at Target and Walgreens. Extra also has their “Dessert Delights” flavors which have a longer lasting flavor compared to most other SF gum brands that I’ve tried. Couldn’t find a bubble gum related meme but this is close enough…

4. Fruit

This could be filed under “healthy dessert alternatives”but fruit is a great snack that can help satisfy that sweet craving with natural sugars instead of added sugars or “fake” ingredients which provide much less nutritional value.

5. Just eat the damn dessert

I am not saying go house an entire jar of cookies every night but treating yourself in moderation is perfectly healthy. Completely restricting yourself is just not the way to live and could lead to stronger cravings and further problems down the road. For me, balance has been key from a physical and mental perspective. Unless you are prepping for a competition or something, treats here and there should certainly be welcome 🙂

So there you have it! I’d love to hear what has helped you all curb those sweet tooth cravings!

So summer is officially here. Beach season. BBQ season. Booze season. You’re constantly stuck in the “kind of want to look good in a bikini kind of want to crush margaritas” dilemma. I hear you. I definitely exceeded my calorie intake last month due to one too many cocktails and my body was certainly not happy about it. #Noragrets though cause I had fun. Unfortunately, the reality is that if you are trying to lose fat, excessive alcohol intake doesn’t exactly help your case. With that said, this doesn’t mean you should be spending your summer skipping out on social events and avoiding that margarita you’ve been craving. It’s all about moderation. I’ve done my fair share of skinny cocktail experimenting and I’d like to think I’ve found a few solid, easy recipes that will save you some calories with the same delicious taste!

1. Blueberry Mojito

Mojitos are a sneaky cocktail that can be loaded with sugar from all that simple syrup. Try this:

1-1.5 oz Bacardi Wolfberry Rum

Club Soda

Mint

Blueberries

*Muddle mint and fruit for flavor blend

2. The Skinny Margarita

Margaritas are my all time favorite summer drink, maybe even all time favorite drink. Unfortunately, they are loaded with calories! Here is an easy and delicious way to create your own margarita with half the calories of your standard bar marg:

1-1.5 oz Tequila

Club Soda

Lime Juice

Agave

3. Real Strawberry Daiquiri

Pinterest inspired, and not sure how I didn’t think of this before but it is basically as it sounds:

If creating your own cocktail isn’t your thing, other go to “healthier” options are your standard vodka soda (NOT tonic), or essentially any vodka drink without excessive juice/mix that will add extra sugar and calories. Typically if you ask the bartender for the “skinny” version or “light on the syrup” they should have no problem accommodating. Last and final thing… Be careful what you read and/or are told on nutritional labels. Some of these “low carb” drinks (cough cough Spiked Seltzers) actually have just as many if not more carbs than your standard light beer. #Buzzkill …But in all seriousness as I mentioned before, it’s all about moderation. Hopefully this post was more helpful vs. hurtful 🙂

Okay so it’s not exactly a diet but just a little experiment that I decided to do last week. Hopefully that title grabbed some attention though 🙂 I recently shared on Instagram that I was starting to get sick of my diet and that goes against everything that I preach so I decided to switch it up a bit, particularly adding lean beef and turkey as protein. I incorporated 1-2 healthy burger creations into my meals every day last week. The results? Very satisfied. My current fitness goal is to slowly lean out and I really didn’t change up my current calorie intake or macro split. If anything I added a bit more carbs this week. I was easily able to incorporate a lot of delicious burger-based meals into my diet without steering off plan. If anything I actually felt leaner by the end of the week. I didn’t weigh myself before and after because I like to focus more on how I look and feel to determine progress and the goal here wasn’t to show a decrease on the scale. The goal was to show that your diet does not have to be boring to be healthy. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish between being hungry v.s. not satisfied which is why I needed to mix things up a bit. This was a fun way to mix up my diet and satisfy my burger cravings! Below is a recap of my favorite creations from the week: